Trident Trials: The War for Eden

-3-

AJAX

I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Jax, wake up." I looked up to see John standing above me, weapon in hand. "It's time." I knew what this meant. We were planning on doing everything in the dark so hopefully the soldiers would see us less clearly. It wouldn't do much to stop the Hydra from seeing us, but as far as we learned there wasn't a good way to do that. Pushing them back and getting the shield up was the first step. John coming to me must mean that we are at least very close to having it ready, if it isn't already. As soon as the question about the shield crossed my mind it was answered.

"The shield is ready to go. They tested it out on a small scale about twenty minutes ago, and it's working."

This piece of information was extremely good. Without the shield to help protect us we probably would've been dead in the water. This would help give us a fighting chance in the battle to come. It would by no means still be an easy feat to accomplish, but it was looking much more possible now.

"The plan has changed slightly, though. The shield is going to be deployed as soon as we are ready to go. The board discussed the need to keep James protected and decided that it would be better to trap whoever is close enough inside and kill them before moving forward. This way we can also study the Hydra more closely before leaving the barrier."

I saw the worry going across John's face as he was telling me the updated plan. I would be lying if I said that I didn't share his concern. Locking several Hydra in here would mean that the possibility for casualties would go up tremendously. Studying the Hydra would be a huge advantage, though.

I looked to him and nodded. The concern was clear on my face, and I knew that he could tell. He placed his hand on my arm and nodded back at me. Sometimes words just weren't necessary. We were ready, and there wasn't much to do about delaying the inevitable anyway.

I bent down to pick my gun up off the floor and started heading towards the door. There was a quiet chaos out in the main area as everyone else was grabbing their weapons and preparing themselves as well. I made my way over to the bunks where the technicians were.

"I hear this shield is ready to go. How sure are we that it isn't going to collapse on us during our counterattack? If it does go down, do we have a backup plan?"

I wasn't sure who I was addressing in the area. There were so many of them standing around that I figured that just addressing the general area was the best idea. Now that I had a group of glassy eyes staring back at me, I figured it would've been better to pick someone that I knew and ask them these questions.

"Hi, I am in charge here. My name is Jeremy."
This new figure reached out to shake my hand and then started pulling me deeper into what looks closest to a mess of machinery that they called a living quarters. I shook his hand and began getting pulled along through the mess.

"Yes, the shield is ready to go. It has been tested three times in the past hour. It should hold for the entirety of the attack and long enough after to prepare proper defenses. We have several people staying here to continue to work and be ready to receive any new information or assignments that we send their way. Those people are the same ones that you saw and terrified a moment ago."

Before I knew it, we were standing at a table with several weapons cases sitting on top of it. I could tell that he was on edge, but then again, so was everyone here. I knew that I shouldn't have led so strongly in my questioning, but I was also on edge.

"Thank you, Jeremy. I am sorry for my lack of introduction. My name is Ajax, I am going to be leading the attack with my friends, and all my trainee's that made it through the initial attack."